How to Choose Coffee Maker Accessories?

Making coffee at home is not a difficult task, but making good coffee is all about how well you accessorize your coffee maker. There are several things you can add to make sure you have the freshest coffee possible.

The carafe is one the basic coffee maker accessories that is an absolute must. Carafes come in 12 cup, 10 cup, and smaller sizes to accommodate your coffee maker. Carafes mostly come in glass, but there are some that come in plastic or stainless steel, again depending on your coffee maker. Thermal carafes have gained popularity because of their portability, and they also seem to keep the coffee hotter longer than do the glass carafes. You can buy thermal vacuum carafes at just about any discount or home goods store.

Coffee filters are another one of those basic accessories that you’ve just got to have, unless you use those premeasured coffee pouch packs. The most important thing to consider when buying coffee filters is to get the right size. Watch the labels carefully, because some are for commercial models and others are for home models. They make filters by brand and cup size of the coffee maker. Coffee filters are available in the standard white and also brown, which are unbleached and use chemicals in their making. Brown filters are supposed to be more environmentally friendly as well. If you want to try to save on waste or have environmental concerns, you can get permanent coffee filters instead of the regular, disposable ones. The advantage of permanent filters is that you will never be caught running out of filters, but the disadvantage is that they don’t filter grounds as well as the paper, disposable filters.

Coffee makers need to be cleaned out periodically. This is determined by how often you use them and how much coffee you run through them. Although water and white vinegar is the typical way to do this, cleaning tablets work well to get residue out of your coffee maker.

Depending on your volume of coffee needs, you might want to purchase a single or double burner coffee warmer, that you can plug in next to your coffee maker on the countertop. The burners only accommodate glass carafes, but they keep your coffee hot while you brew a new batch if you are serving several people.